Rory McIlroy has revealed the details of a bizarre incident which led to a spectator being ejected from the Wells Fargo Championship during Thursday’s first round.
McIlroy had just teed off on the par-three sixth hole at Quail Hollow, his 15th, when a golf ball was thrown onto the tee box – with an earplug stuck to it.
.@McIlroyRory & @RickieFowler on fan throwing golf ball near Rory after he teed off on 6th hole at #WellsFargoChamp pic.twitter.com/zUIQGA5ZAH
— Anthony Flores (@AnthonyFox46) May 5, 2016
McIlroy, who came close to a hole-in-one and holed from four feet for birdie in his opening 73, told reporters: “It was sort of weird. That’s never really happened to me before.”
The world number three’s playing partner Rickie Fowler was preparing to hit his tee shot when the ball landed, but laughed off the incident after carding a one-under-par 71.
"Fan throws golf ball with earplug attached at Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler"
— Oddschecker (@Oddschecker) May 6, 2016
The most random Sports news headline I've read this year.
“So random,” Fowler said. “The guy tried to say it was a gift. I don’t know why you would give a gift of a golf ball with an earplug attached to it.”
McIlroy pointed out the spectator to security officials and he was removed from the course.
Defending champion McIlroy recovered from a poor start to keep his hopes alive of a third victory in the tournament.
McIlroy won his first PGA Tour title at Quail Hollow in 2010 and has recorded five top-10 finishes in six appearances in the event, including carding a course-record 61 in the third round last year on his way to a seven-shot win.
But the four-time major winner, who is the only member of the world’s top five yet to win in 2016, had to settle for an opening 73 on Thursday to lie eight shots off the clubhouse lead held by Steve Wheatcroft and Andrew Loupe.
Starting on the back nine, McIlroy dropped shots at the 12th and 13th before carding a double bogey on the 18th, where he missed the green with his approach and three-putted from 13 feet following a clumsy chip.
A birdie from 20 feet on the second was followed by another dropped shot on the next, but McIlroy then two-putted the fifth for a birdie and picked up another shot from just four feet on the sixth.
Another two-putt birdie on the par-five seventh made it three in a row and although McIlroy narrowly missed from feet on the ninth to get back to level par, he at least had not played himself out of contention.
McIlroy has not played competitively since finishing 10th at the Masters and admitted on Wednesday he was attempting to fix some “bad habits” which had crept into his game before Augusta.
“I knew I was going to have to sort of play my way into the next couple of weeks,” McIlroy said in quotes reported by the Golf Channel.
“I started off pretty well today but then there was just some shots where I was thinking so much about the swing rather than actually the shot that I was trying to hit and that was really the problem for the front nine.
“I would much rather be in red numbers [under par] but I’m much happier where I am now than I was three hours ago. I just need to go out tomorrow and shoot a good second round, something in the 60s, get myself back into the tournament going into the weekend.”
